'Your Son Was A Headlight': Fulton DA's Office Honors Slain Morehouse Student

ATLANTA, GA -- Representatives from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office traveled to Chicago this past weekend to pay their respects to a former Atlantan who was gunned down back in his hometown.

Former Morehouse College student, Xavier Joy, 23, was shot and killed in Chicago's Woodlawn area on June 8 during what his family believes was a robbery for his cell phone. (To get notified of more local news like this, click here to sign up for the Atlanta Patch. Or find your Atlanta-area town here. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Senior Assistant District Attorney George Jenkins and Jamel Chambers, a fellow native of Chicago and one of four interns from Morehouse in the Fulton DA’s Office, went to the funeral, which was held Friday, June 16.

Joy was the son of the executive director of Change Illinois, a Chicago-based advocacy group focused on reform.

Joy attended Morehouse during the 2012 to 2013 school year, playing for the football team. In his player bio on the school's website, Joy said his chief ambition was "To give back to my community, and provide for my family."

Read more: Letter: Joy to the World...

He was on his way to accomplishing that goal. He had returned to the City’s South Side to work with underprivileged youth when he was fatally shot just two blocks from his home.

At the funeral, Jenkins and Chambers presented Joy's family with the Fulton DA Office’s Headlight Award, the highest award presented by the office to people who have made significant contributions to the betterment of society.

The award was inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a 1948 Morehouse graduate who encouraged citizens and institutions to serve as “headlights rather than taillights.”

Fulton DA Paul Howard, also a Morehouse grad, presented a letter which in part read: “Your son was indeed a headlight. We feel his loss today but we also are proud to honor his accomplishments with this award.”

The Morehouse interns in the Fulton DA's office plan to commemorate Joy’s life by holding a march on the school's campus in the future, according to a news release.

A GoFundMe account on the family's behalf says this: "Xavier truly was a remarkable young man and we are heartbroken that his life was cut short far too soon. Despite his short time on this planet, he made a difference and was committed to justice and positive change. He has left all of us with many treasured memories."

Image courtesy of Fulton DA's Office